Page 143 of Red Ruin

I’m not supposed to bite the ones I love.

My bastard father had me venoming servants as soon as I cut my baby teeth. He needed to test my power.

He hated the results.

My venom wasn’t just stronger than his—it wasspecial.

It lets my hosts borrow my magic to fulfill their darkest desires.

I was his experiment.

Never his child.

Nanny asked me to bite her before I knew what that meant.

She managed to kill my mother—the bitch who was running the tests—and carried me out of the dungeon. I clung to the woman who actually raised me. Felt her blood pumping too hot, the venom driving her insane as she made a break to escape the estate.

Nanny didn’t give a fuck what it cost—she loved me that much.

We made it to the wall.

I was in her arms when Old Duke cut her down.

Felt her go still, my venom chilling as her veins cooled.

No matter what my father did to force me, I never bit again.

Until Rhat. Only because I was starving in the dungeon.

Who knew I could venom rats?

Rhat became my brother.

He lasted longer than Nanny. Long enough to become human smart and burn up from the inside. He could speak in my head by the time he found the key to the manacles suppressing my power.

He said, then died in my hands—breathing one second, the next just…ash and bones.

I lost my shit.

Slaughtered every fucking Trezzoran I could find.

Everything’s a blur between then and now. The emperor kept me as his dog. I killed a lot. Maybe bit a few people who needed to suffer. Got banished to the Farguard before my last rampage dragged the palace to hell with me.

It would’ve ended sooner if I could’ve ended it myself.

I was so close to the end.

Finally,so fucking close.

Then Iris kicked into my world.

White sneakers dipped in kobold blood, and a soul too pure to resist.

FUCK.

And I repeat.

FUCK.

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